Author Archives: jennifercox

I remember it clearly, the first time I was called a handful. He said it disparagingly, like I should know it wasn’t a great thing. That I had any doubt. That all of life up to that moment hadn’t prepared me, done its level best to ensure it. That somehow I still had doubts thatContinue reading “Handful.”

This year will be year two of the pandemic. And to be certain, we are better off than before. Listen to me. Like I know. I don’t. I don’t know. My family didn’t lose jobs, we didn’t lose family, we made do as everyone did, with less to distract us, possibly annoy us. We didContinue reading “January Blue-ish.”

When I was in college in the 90’s, I had a radio show on our college campus. I liked it, but I wasn’t hopelessly devoted to it until I was a junior. That year, a friend asked if I wanted to host her show with her. I was all in, of course, even though itContinue reading “Radio Show”

The house across the street burned last night. I woke to my husband standing at the window, awestruck, saying, “I can see flames.” And I could, too. I’ve not seen anything like that before, right from my bedroom window. The number of firetrucks in one place– I think we counted seven of them, lighting upContinue reading “Fireworks.”

When I was in college, I wore a bell in my hair. I would braid a tiny braid in the back of my hair and I would weave a wee bell into it so that as I moved, a sound would emanate and remind me that I was here, that I had a voice. AndContinue reading “Bells.”

When I was in 10th grade, my English teacher was trying a new thing: spelling tests. It was the 90’s. And upon reflection as an adult – after wrestling with teacher pedagogy myself for years now – it is clear that this was Outcome Based Standards imposed on my tiny little school. And it isContinue reading “Spelling Test”

When I was a senior in high school in my achingly small town, I went to the library every day. This is probably not unusual for our people, dear reader, but I ate lunch there, too. Well, I wasn’t supposed to. There was no eating in the library. But this was a very small town,Continue reading “School Lunch”

The first time I remember reading romance was at my friend’s house at age 15. Well, that’s not exactly true. I remember finding these historical teen romance books in the books store when I was about ten. I picked up one after another and wanted all of them. They were $6.95 each, so my momContinue reading “Let’s be friends.”